Type 2 Assignment 2- Post 1, Fontery!

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 So, we gotta make a font.

Influenced by Medicine Hat.

I hate driving in Medicine Hat.

I'm going to make a font that reflects it.

I love Wim Crouwel's work.

That's an influence.

So, looking at the New Alphabet for inspiration, I stared at its type example for too long. Figured out what the figures, math symbols, and punctuation represented. Eventually I started thinking how it related to Medicine Hat transport routes. I realized it didn't directly speak to the traffic, but it did look like roads curving around.

While I was doing rubbings of type, I was walking roads, looking down, and realized that the road markings would make an interesting basis of the font. Turns out there are rules for road markings (https://open.alberta.ca/publications/highway-pavement-marking-guide-2nd-edition/resource/14df908e-9c5d-41f8-82f9-09ac12b5d99a). Here's the main page I used for my rules of the road.

Once I had decided on road lines, I started doodling lines and shapes I see on the road. Should they be filled, or empty? Ligatures (those are really cool), serif or sans serif (how?). Manicules passed through my head for a minutes as an alternative idea, but I dismissed it as being too 1890s-1930s vaudeville like.

 


 


So when the ideal for road lines was set, I needed rules for construction, because that's what I'm like. Luckily I had a book to guide me. 

But first, the shapes. Next entry.


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